Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 32 (2013) 74–96 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Anthropological Archaeology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaa Sacred landscapes of the southern Brazilian highlands: Understanding southern proto-Jê mound and enclosure complexes ⇑ José Iriarte a, , Silvia Moehlecke Copé b, Michael Fradley c, Jami J. Lockhart d,1, J. Christopher Gillam e,2 a Department of Archaeology, College of Humanities, University of Exeter, 314 Laver Building, North Park Rd., Exeter EX4 4QE, UK b Núcleo de Pesquisa Arqueológica - NuPArq, Departamento de História - IFCH, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, 91501-970 - Porto Alegre - RS, Brazil c School of Applied Science, Bournemouth University, Christchurch House C140, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole BH12 5BB, UK d Arkansas Archeological Survey, 2475 N. Hatch Ave., Fayetteville, AR 72704, USA e Savannah River Archaeological Research, Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208-0017, USA article info abstract Article history: Fieldwork involving survey, detailed topographic mapping, and excavations in Pinhal da Serra, Rio Received 18 July 2012 Grande do Sul, Brazil, has revealed a highly-structured landscape revolving around funerary/ceremonial Revision received 30 October 2012 structures that began around A.D. 1000. This paper focuses on the results of detailed topographic survey Available online 20 December 2012 of mound and enclosure complexes and their interpretation in light of southern Jê ethnohistorical and ethnographic data. We compare the architectural patterns of mortuary architecture from this study with Keywords: fundamental spatial features of historic Kaingang’s social organisation, mortuary rituals and cosmogony Southern proto-Jê myth. Our results suggest historical continuity in the organisation of space in cardinal directions (E–W), Taquara–Itararé tradition topography (low and high places), and in circular/concentric spatiality revealed in the southern proto-Jê Funerary mound and enclosure complexes Landscape archaeology mound and enclosure complexes. It is argued that small paired mound and enclosure complexes are asso- Southern Brazilian highlands ciated with the material representation of a dual ranked opposition materialised in proto-Jê moiety cem- eteries where important persona were buried. Ó 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Introduction 1999; Thompson and Pluckhahn, 2012; Tilley, 2007). Several authors have emphasised the importance of the landscape as a Archaeologists studying the Formative period in the Americas means of encapsulating and transmitting historical memory and the Neolithic in the Old World have long been concerned with (Bender, 1993, 2002; Santos-Granero, 1998, 2004), as well as a cru- the study of the economic, social and ideological roles associated cial factor in polity-formation associated with more complex social with the arrival of burial monuments and the creation of built formations and the appropriation of new territories (Dillehay, sacred landscapes in intermediate level societies (Barrett, 1996; 1995, 2007; Heckenberger, 2002, 2007; Siegel, 1999; Zucchi, 2002). Beck, 1995; Bradley, 1998; Carr and Case, 2005; Iriarte, 2006; The southern Brazilian highlands is one of the few regions in the Dillehay, 2007; Fleming, 1973; Scarre, 2002). Traditionally, the world where mortuary rituals associated with mound-building debate has focused on how these processes reflected changes in have been recorded among the southern Jê groups in early Euro- subsistence, population growth, territoriality and the rise and pean accounts during the 17th–19th centuries and investigated development of social distinctions (Binford, 1971; Renfrew, 1973; by ethnographers during the 20th century in the Kaingang (Baldus, Tainter, 1978). More recently, discussion has turned to aspects re- 1937; Becker, 1976; Crépeau, 1994; Henry, 1964; Maniser, 1930; lated to the perception, memory, ideology, and underlying struc- Métraux, 1946; Nimuendajú, 1993 [1913]; Paula, 1924; Veiga, tural principles and meanings of monumental landscapes 2000, 2006). Importantly, funerary and post-funerary rituals are (Ashmore and Knapp, 1999; Barrett, 1996; Bradley, 1998; DeBoer, reported to be their most important ceremony, when these groups 1997; Dillehay, 2007; Edmond, 1999; Feinman, 1999; Thomas, gathered together showing their dual organisation (Baldus, 1937; Crépeau, 1994; Métraux, 1946; Nimuendajú, 1993 [1913]; Veiga, 2006). These events included the burial of important chiefs, sec- ⇑ Corresponding author. Fax: +44 (0) 1392 264358. ondary burials, the inheritance of the chiefly office by the eldest E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J. Iriarte), [email protected] (S. son of the deceased chief, initiation rites, name-giving ceremonies, Moehlecke Copé), [email protected] (M. Fradley), [email protected] performance and re-creation of the cosmogony myth, and feasting (J.J. Lockhart), [email protected] (J.C. Gillam). 1 Fax: +1 (479) 575 5453. (Da Silva, 2001; Iriarte et al., 2008; Maniser, 1930; Métraux, 1946; 2 Fax: +1 (803) 254 1338. Veiga, 2006). Therefore, the emergence and development of the 0278-4165/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2012.10.003 J. Iriarte et al. / Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 32 (2013) 74–96 75 pre-Columbian southern Jê mortuary tradition in the southern interpretation of archaeological patterns from the southern pro- Brazilian highlands during the second millennium AD presents to-Jê in light of the ethnohistorical and ethnographic information. an exceptional case study to understand the role of mortuary practices, feasting, and the creation of built landscapes related to the emergence of social hierarchies (Dietler and Hayden, 2001; The archaeology of the southern proto-Jê Dillehay, 2007; Gumerman, 1997; Hayden, 2009; Iriarte et al., 2008; Kertzer, 1988). Combining archaeology, ethnohistory and Following Da Silva (2001) in this article we referred to the ethnographic studies among the Kaingang provides a unique broadly defined Taquara/Itararé archaeological tradition (Beber, opportunity to assess the long-term transformation of the princi- 2005) with the name of southern proto-Jê groups. We used south- ples of social and political organisation materialised in the layout ern proto-Jê groups because (a) we wanted to emphasise the his- of mortuary earthworks and the structure of the built landscape. torical continuity of these groups in the southern Brazilian In this article, we focus on the investigation of the architectural highlands from at least the start of the first millennium A.D. to layout of funerary and ceremonial structures concentrating on the the present and (b) we are not attempting to connect the archaeo- following questions: (a) What is the spatial patterning of mortuary logical record from the Late Holocene with any particular histori- earthworks at the landscape level in the Pinhal da Serra region? cally-defined southern Jê group, like the Kaingang or the Xokleng More specifically, how were these mortuary earthworks structured (see discussion in Da Silva, 2001). Dating back to around in the landscape in relation to topography, prominent landforms, 2220 cal. yr BP, the southern proto-Jê occupied the southern Brazil- direction of view, intervisibility and transit routes? (b) What is ian highlands and the Atlantic forest of the Brazilian states of the relationship between ceremonial sites and residential pit- southern São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, as house villages? And (c) What are the patterns in the architectural well as Misiones, Argentina and Paraguay (Fig. 1). Linguistic (May- design of mound and enclosure complexes? What are the potential bury-Lewis, 1979; Urban, 1992; Wiesemann, 1978) and archaeo- meanings expressed in the layout of these ceremonial sites in logical (Araújo, 2001; Noelli, 2000, 2005) studies suggest that the terms of the cognitive associations of the forms and their position- historic Kaingang and Xokleng groups belonging to the Macro-Jê ing in the landscape? linguistic stock and, more specifically, to the languages of the Ak- To address these questions we carried out an opportunistic wen (Xakriabá, Xavante, Xerente) and the Apinayé in the states survey across the Pinhal da Serra region (Figs. 1 and 2), producing of Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso and Goiás (Noelli, 2005: 178), mi- detailed topographic models of mound and enclosure complexes grated to the southern Brazilian highlands from Central Brazil dur- with differential GPS and conducted out geophysical survey and ing the Late Holocene. The southern proto-Jê practiced a mixed excavation of select sites during two field seasons in 2009 and economy combining hunting, fishing and collecting Paraná pine 2011. Our work built upon the long-term project of the Núcleo de nuts with slash and burn agriculture at lower altitudes dominated Pesquisa Arqueológica da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul by subtropical semi-deciduous forest, where maize (Zea mays L.) under the direction of Silvia Moehlecke Copé (SMC). In the first sec- was part of the diet (see Gessert et al., 2011: 35). They are broadly tion of this paper, we will briefly introduce the archaeology of the identified archaeologically by their diagnostic ceramics, the con- pre-Columbian southern Jê groups (southern proto-Jê), followed by struction of pit houses, and